A pilot scheme to help GP practices deliver home visits has proved a big success.
The ‘West Locality Unscheduled Visits’ project was developed to test a new afternoon home-visiting service for patients.
All the locality’s seven GP practices and Grampian Medical Emergency Department (G-MED) took part in the initiative, which involves an Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) visiting patients who ask for an unscheduled home visit that would usually have been undertaken by a GP. Patient requests for a visit are first screened by a GP to see if they are suitable. An ANP then visits the patient and liaises with the GP practice regarding the outcome and any further action required.
Some 241 referrals were made during the first six months of the project, which was launched last November and has now been the subject of a detailed evaluation.
GPs were very satisfied with the service, giving it an average score of 90%. They reported reduced workloads allowing them to spend more time with patients in the practice, a high-quality service for patients, and decreased stress for other practice staff.
ANPs felt they provided holistic care to patients and were providing GPs with a good service.
Patients who returned questionnaires at the end of the evaluation period also reacted positively, with 100% of respondents rating their ANP as “very good” for their compassion and respectfulness. Respondents also gave the scheme full marks in terms of their overall satisfaction. One patient told the evaluation team: “The home visit was excellent – the nurse was very good and patient with me. I wish we could get someone like her all the time.”
Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership is now extending the service into the Torry Medical Practice area – with the longer-term aim of scaling up the model to cover half of the city by the end of this year. The scheme is part of wider efforts by the partnership to transform and improve primary care in Aberdeen, aligned with the roll-out of the new GP contract.
ACHSCP Depute Clinical Lead Dr Caroline Howarth said: “Our West Visits project has proved to be a significant success. It has allowed GPs to make best use of their time as expert medical generalists and at the same time has provided an excellent person-centred service for patients.
“As a GP in one of the participating practices, I can vouch for the positive impact the project has had and I look forward to it benefitting more practices in the city as we expand it further.”
The full West Unscheduled Care Evaluation Report can be viewed here.
